Shortlisted for the 2017 Red Maple Award

Shortlisted for the 2017 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award (MYRCA)

Presentation Information

Division 1: Kindergarten-Grade 3Diversity may be a big word for the younger kids but Lorna works through this by introducing the children to her Puckster children’s books. Manny the Moose is a paraplegic and plays hockey in a sled. Sarah is a girl and she plays with the boys. Roly is a brown bear and big for his age. Charlie is a squirrel and small. Juan is a panda from China. Lorna’s Puckster picture books are about Canadian animals working together on a team. The team is definitely diverse. The stories in the books fit in perfectly with the Social Studies units about belonging and connecting and identity. They also work well with Health and Life Skills as they deal with group roles and processes and healthy eating habits. Lorna ties in the ELA curriculum by talking about where she gets her ideas from and how reading can be fun. This presentation can be adapted to fit K’s as well. Since reading is so important for this division and many are just learning, Lorna will finish with a high energy reading, (she seriously crawls on the floor to perform the story), followed by a Q and A. Giving the students questions to ask prior to the presentation is always a good idea.

Division 2: Grades 4-6Lorna will focus her time on her three new books, but can tailor the presentation to the group and what the teachers are focusing on, whether it is fiction or non-fiction, or a bit of both. The Connor McDavid book is a biography and includes graphic sections so with non-fiction she would explain how she wrote the graphics (the actual formatting) and how she did her research. (This was new for Lorna so she will also talk about trying new things.)

Diversity can come in all shapes and sizes and is sometimes visible and sometimes hidden. Lorna’s middle grade novel Superhero Ninja Wrestling Star deals with diversity and being true to who you are, plus it deals with those middle grade body issues. Depending on age of group, she could also introduce her latest One-2-One series. A Time to Run: Stuart and Sam is about a teen with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Bent Not Broken: Madeline and Justin is about a teen with a brain injury; Born With: Erika and Gianni is about a girl with Down syndrome and Fragile Bones: Harrison and Anna is about a boy with high-functioning autism. The series is about the Best Buddies program. Lorna also has a series of middle grade hockey novels and will talk about these novels if she has a school with lots of boys or sports enthusiasts, or lower reading levels because these books are reluctant readers. These middle grade books also deal with diverse characters so she talks more about diversity more than sports but it gets snuck in there too. (Yes, she will answer hockey questions!) Josh, in Interference, Roughing, Cross-Check and Holding, has diabetes. Peter, in Roughing, Against the Boards and Northern Star, is an Inuit from the North West Territories. Kaleigh is a girl and plays hockey plus she has a grandmother with Alzheimer’s. All of Lorna’s books fit in well with the Health and Life Skills curriculum component because they deal with helping others, dealing with stress, managing time and staying physically healthy. Lorna will tie in the ELA curriculum by talking about the writing process and the planning and plotting that goes into writing a story, as well as editing. If there is time (or if a teacher requests) she will chat about the difference between writing fiction and non-fiction and her life as a writer, including writing tips to help the students. She will also give info on research techniques. This can be a power point presentation depending on the situation but it is not a necessity. A reading will finish the presentation, followed by a Q and A.

Division 3: Grades 7-9The diverse characters in Lorna’s middle grade fiction or Young Adult fiction can fit into this age group. Currently she has one middle grade series and two YA series. Her newest novel, A Time to Run: Stuart and Sam features a teen with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Bent Not Broken: Madeline and Justin, features a girl with a brain injury; Born With: Erika and Gianni, features a girl with Down syndrome; and Fragile Bones: Harrison and Anna is about a boy with high-functioning autism. All of the books in the One-2-One series are written from two points of view to show students how people deal with situations differently. For this presentation Lorna has a power point, but it is not a necessity if not available. Her Podium Sports Academy series has multi-cultural characters dealing with internal and external issues. Her middle grade hockey series has multi-cultural characters as well as characters with medical issues. She introduces all her books but will go into detail with her One-2-One series or her middle grade fiction (depending on age of group) as they work well with the Health and Life Skills curriculum. How do her characters understand people around them? How do they deal with diversity? How do they make choices that help along the way? How do they keep good relationships? Yes, her characters make mistakes but how do they learn from them. She will also talk about the writing process and where she gets her ideas and how she works her ideas into story form. She will also talk about the difference between fiction and non-fiction and research techniques. She goes into detail about the editing process and this works with the ELA curriculum. A reading will finish the presentation, followed by a Q and A.

Division 4: Grades 10-12Lorna has published two different Young Adult series, (Podium Sports Academy and her latest One-2-One series). All her series work extremely well with CALM because all her books are about making choices, peer groups, work experience and life skills and DIVERSITY. The Podium Sports Academy series covers different sports, different cultures and real-life teen issues. Her One-2-One Series features four books: A Time to Run: Stuart and Sam, Bent Not Broken: Madeline and Justin, Born With: Erika and Gianni, and Fragile Bones: Harrison and Anna. This series is about the Best Buddies program and features two students in each book. A Time to Run: Stuart and Sam is about a teen with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and a basketball player who has a heart issue; Bent Not Broken: Madeline and Justin is about a twin with a brain injury and a teen whose mother is suffering from depression; Born With; Erika and Gianni is about a teen girl born with Down syndrome and a teen boy dealing with his sexuality. Fragile Bones: Harrison and Anna is the story of a teen boy with high-functioning autism and an over-achieving teen girl trying to get into medical school. This series shows how people can deal with situations in entirely different ways. Some scenes are written twice from two different viewpoints and neither is right or wrong. Just different. Some of the choices made in Lorna’s series are not ideal. She will talk to the students about her ideas and where they come from, and how she uses her ideas, how she plans a book in advance, and the writing process. She prefers to have a power point for this group. She covers outlining, writing and, of course, editing. All of this fits in to the ELA arts curriculum. She wants to encourage teens to read and write and enjoy both. And even teens love being read to. She will finish her presentation with a reading of one of her books and a question and answer period. She encourages the students to tell her about their own writing.

Biography

Lorna Schultz Nicholson has published picture books, middle grade fiction and non-fiction, and YA fiction. As a child she loved to read and write, and sent off her first submission to a Pioneer Girls magazine because she went to camp and was so excited about her week away. This was her first rejection. Yes, it came in snail mail format. She kept trying though, and in grade eight she wrote a story titled The Case of the Missing Birthday Cake and it won second prize in a contest, and she received $10.00. That was a lot of money back then. Then she become a jock, and sports were her life in high school. Her writing resurfaced when she started writing about sports, mainly for magazines, and when she became a co-host for the television show Body Moves and wrote one-minute health segments. Oh, and she was also the university student, (Graduating with a BSc from University of Victoria) who if she could, changed her assignment to make it into a short story instead of an essay. Sometimes she received a high mark for creativity, but sometimes she was told, “That’s not what I asked for.” Oh dear. When she got married and had children, she started writing a regular column in a small newspaper about the funny things children do, and she hosted and wrote all the material for a radio show called Family Time. She was also a health and lifestyles reporter for CJOH Television, writing all her own scripts and material. This was all in Ottawa, Ontario. Then Lorna and her family, (by this time she had three small children), moved to Calgary, AB. Now what? She enrolled in a short story class and instead of writing a paragraph a week, she wrote a chapter, remembering those early days when she loved to write fiction. At the end of the eight-week-class she had a novel. A really, really not-so-good novel, that never got published. This made her realize, however, that she loved writing fiction and it was a passion. Still is, by the way! Her first published book, Interference, was a hockey novel and she wrote it because her son was young and a bit of a sports nut and that’s all he would read. She felt there should be more books for boys that have short chapters. Many books later, in many genres including non-fiction, most of her books are about diversities and friendships and school and family life and emotions and feelings and… the ups and downs in life. We all have those ups and downs, and we’re all different, which makes us all special. Lorna now lives in Edmonton with her hubbie (he works for the Edmonton Oilers so she LOVES going to hockey games) and two dogs, a whiny Bichon Shih Tzu, and a naughty, hyper puppy she rescued from Mexico. Well, he’s not a puppy anymore but she treats him like he is. Over the years besides being a television co-host and reporter, radio host and reporter she was also a theatre and murder mystery actor, fitness coordinator and rowing coach. Whew! Thankfully, now she is full-time writer. Oh, and she loves travelling to schools all across Canada to inspire children about her love of reading and writing, and she loves talking to adults about writing, and leading writing workshops. She remembers her before-published days and wants to encourage writers to keep pursuing their dreams. Being an author is a dream come true.

Awards

Born With

Red Maple Nominee 2017

MYRCA Nominee 2017

Voya – Top of the Top Shelf Selection 2017

Fragile Bones

Red Maple Nominee (runner up in NDSB Red Maple voting) 2016

Snow Willow Nominee 2016

MYRCA Nominee 2016

Writers Guild of Alberta R. Ross Annett Literary Award – Nominee 2016

CCBC Best Books for Kids &Teens 2016

Too Many Men

Diamond Willow Nominee 2006

Best Book for Kids &Teens 2006

Fighting for Gold

Red Cedar Nominee 2011

Winning Gold

Best Book for Kids &Teens 2010

Roughing

Golden Eagle Nominee 2005

Canadian Children’s Center Our Choice Selection 2005

Interference

Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Selection 2004

Against the Boards

Canadian Children’s Book Centre Our Choice Starred Selection 2005

Northern Star

Best Book for Kids &Teens 2007

Cross-Check!

Best Book for Kids &Teens 2007

Delaying the Game

Best Book for Kids &Teens 2006

Rookie

Best Book for Kids &Teens 2012

Vegas Tryout

Best Book for Kids &Teens 2012

One Cycle

Best Book for Kids &Teens starred selection 2014

Forward Pass

Best Book for Kids & Teens starred selection 2013

Commended One of the Year’s Best 2013 Resource Links

Big Air

Commended One of the Year’s Best 2013 Resource Links

Hoop Dreams

Best Book for Kids &Teens 2014

Praise

“I watched Lorna give ten presentations to 560 participants. Through her humour and lively manner, often acting out the instances she described, she kept the children engaged and entertained. Lorna’s presentations, however, are more than just entertaining – they are educational as well. With the clever use of well thought out questions and audience participation, Lorna was able to provide the children with numerous learning opportunities – whether about writing, current issues or the importance of following their dreams.”

—Jen Anderson, Library Consultant, Peace Library System

“Lorna’s positive energy and love of reading and writing was infectious. She related exceptionally well with all ages. Lorna infused personal experiences that inspire her craft and introduced us to her many other titles. She emphasized the importance of reading and writing and the places books can take us. Her range of topics is appealing and appropriate for both genders.”

—Marg Marion, Principal, St. Peter School, St. Catharines, Ontario

“Thank you so very much for the truly amazing visit today!!!!!! You rock!!!! Our best author visit ever!!!!!! :)”

—Regina Bandelj, Librarian, St. Robert Elementary, Toronto, Ontario

“The hour went by so fast, and it was magical to see the connections made between Lorna and the group. Overall, it was a pleasure to host Lorna Schultz Nicholson, and a delight to watch her work with the kids. I would love to have her visit the Niagara Falls Public Library again anytime. I truly feel that lives were changed that day, and would love to share her with all of the kids in our community.”